US representatives ask Blinken to stop Israel’s demolition of Palestinian village

Fifty members of the US House of Representatives from the Democratic Party have asked US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to prevent Israel from forcefully evicting 38 Palestinian families and demolishing their occupied West Bank village of Al-Walaja, it has been reported.

“The destruction and displacement of this community would run counter to the values shared by the US and Israel, while further undermining long-term Israeli security, Palestinian dignity, and prospects for peace,” wrote the representatives. The signatories, including Jan Schakowsky, David Price, Jamie Raskin, John Yarmuth and Mark Pocan, said that they are concerned about the expulsion plan.

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They urged the Biden administration to work with Israel to “advance an equitable development plan that will formally authorise existing homes, provide for adequate municipal services and allow for residential and other necessary development of the village.”

Al-Walaja’s land covered nearly 18,000 dunams (1,800 hectares) prior to 1948. In 1949, as part of the armistice agreed between Israel and Jordan its residents left the village. Some relocated to the east, according to Israeli rights group B’Tselem, establishing a “new” Al-Walaja on village land covering about 6,000 dunams (600 hectares) on the West Bank side of the Green Line. In 1967, after the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, Israel annexed about a third of this area to be within Jerusalem’s municipal boundaries.

About half of the 6,000 dunams that Al-Walaja residents held onto after 1949 were exploited by Israel for its own purposes from as early as the 1970s. Some were expropriated to build Gilo, an illegal settlement bloc in Jerusalem. Others were seized by military order to build the settlement of Har Gilo.

“The Jerusalem Municipality never provided local government services to the part of Al-Walaja annexed to its territory, and refused to approve masterplans for it,” explained B’Tselem. “Lacking any other choice, over the years, the residents built homes without permits.”

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